Winter hits housing recovery

Home prices fell in January, but held up better in many warm-weather markets.

Cold weather hurt home prices in January, as a closely watched measure of housing values posted its third straight monthly decline.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of prices in 20 major markets dipped 0.1%.

"The housing recovery may have taken a breather due to the cold weather," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Five cities bucked the trend and saw price gains of 0.4% or more, and all of them -- Las Vegas, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa -- are in warm-weather states. Four of the five cities that posted the sharpest drop in prices were cities hit hard by the cold weather -- Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Boston. Seattle prices also saw a significant drop.

Home prices are still bouncing back from the bust. On a year-over-year basis, prices gained 13.2% nationally.But gains are slowing; January's annual rise is the lowest 12-month gain posted since August.The high point of the current recovery, the 13.7% increase in November, was generally seen an unsustainable by housing experts.